1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of glove dispensers and more specifically to easily loadable, wall- or surface-mountable glove dispensers for boxes of pre-packaged gloves, including vinyl, latex and polyethylene gloves and other protective gloves, which can store and dispense such gloves in an ergonomic manner.
2. Prior Art
Glove dispensers are currently found in almost every area where gloves are present such as medical facilities (hospitals, physicians, dentists, EMS, etc.), industrial first aid stations, food service areas, schools, police and fire departments, high-tech clean rooms, beauty salons, homes, postal facilities, and anywhere disposable gloves are needed. Further, because of the increasing seriousness of present day diseases and increases in the number of events of bioterrorism, protective gloves such as surgical gloves are going to be dispensed in more areas and in more facilities.
The main advantages of glove dispensers is that they ensure that gloves can be found in a designated place, can be retrieved conveniently, and are at least somewhat protected from contaminants. Such dispensers can allow people to find gloves without fumbling and are especially helpful when time is critical. Further, glove dispensers are useful as an organizational tool to save counter space and make a work area look more professional.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,589 to McLaughlin discloses a dispensing apparatus for disposable gloves that allows users to retrieve gloves one at a time in a relatively simple manner. The gloves are loaded through a top opening and dispensed through a forward opening. Because McLaughlin ""589 discloses a device that incorporates a spring means to generally dispense gloves forward, the user must user an unnatural forward movement to retrieve the gloves from the dispensing apparatus and is not ergonomic.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,089 to McLaughlin discloses a dispenser for disposable gloves that comprises a generally rectangle enclosure for housing gloves. The gloves that are dispensed by the device in McLaughlin ""089 are a stack of gloves attached to each other at the wrist area. A mounting strip extends across the upper wrist portion of the stack of gloves and is fixed to each glove above a tear line. Because McLaughlin ""089 discloses an apparatus that generally dispenses gloves downward, the user must use an unnatural downward movement to retrieve the gloves and is not ergonomic. Further, the McLaughlin ""089 device is useful only for the pre-mounted stack of gloves.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,808 to Tassoni discloses a dispenser comprising multiple units for protective gloves that has at least one compartment for holding a bulk quantity of gloves. Tassoni ""808 discloses a dispenser that must be filled with individual gloves and does not accommodate boxes of prepackaged gloves, thus subjecting the gloves to additional, possibly detrimental, handling of the gloves. Further, this apparatus requires that the user retrieve gloves using an upward movement, which is not ergonomic.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,543 to Dejardin et al. discloses a dispenser for gloves made of sheet material and comprises a box that defines a volume for a pre-determined number of the gloves. This apparatus does not accommodate boxes of gloves and requires an unnatural downward movement to retrieve gloves, which is not ergonomic.
Notwithstanding the prior art, there is need for an easily loadable, wall-mountable, glove dispenser that can accommodate at least one box of prepackaged gloves, such as, but not limited to, vinyl gloves, latex gloves, and polyethylene gloves, which can store and dispense such gloves in an ergonomic manner. There further is a need for a device to dispense gloves without negative consequences such as a substantial contamination to the gloves. It is to such needs and others that the present invention is directed.
Briefly, the present invention is an easily loadable, surface- or wall-mountable, glove dispenser for prepackaged gloves, especially pre-boxed gloves. The dispenser can store and dispense such gloves in an ergonomic manner, and is suitable for any type of glove, such as latex, vinyl and polyethylene. When in a closed configuration, the dispenser is a generally rectangular, box-shaped unit having a somewhat triangularly skewed side cross section and comprising a back plate and a cover with an aperture through which the gloves are retrieved. The device has an interior volume, encases at least one box of prepackaged gloves, and includes means for securing the box of prepackaged gloves within the device that allows for the angular dispensing of gloves in an ergonomic and efficient manner.
The dispenser is structured so as to contain at least one commercially available prepackaged box of disposable gloves. This allows the gloves to be placed in the device without actually touching the gloves, thus reducing the chance of contaminating the gloves. The dispenser comprises a means for securing the box of prepackaged glove box within the device that allows for the gloves to be dispensed at an angle (rather than only downward or forward), which allows a more natural movement of the hand and arm when obtaining a glove from the dispenser. The dispenser further comprises a rack structure comprising at least one protrusion for holding the box of prepackaged gloves, and therefore the gloves themselves, at the dispensing angle, and at least one segment for holding the box of gloves within the dispenser with respect to gravity.
Thus, it can be seen that one advantage of the present invention is a glove dispenser for easy, reliable, convenient, and ergonomic, one at a time, dispensing of gloves.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the angled means for holding the box of prepackaged gloves allows the gloves to be more easily dispensed without compromising other function of the dispenser.
Other advantages of the present invention include a glove dispenser that is easy to charge or recharge with gloves, and is capable of dispensing a wide variety of gloves (types, sizes and materials) in a convenient and reliable fashion.
The flexibility of the invention makes it useful and convenient to use in a wide variety of applications (such as ambulances, police cars, fire vehicles, hospital emergency rooms and labs, as well as in the offices of doctors and dentists) and protects the gloves against tampering, the elements of weather, and environmental contaminants. Further, because of these characteristics, and particularly because of the dispenser""s simplicity, the present invention provides a glove dispenser that is of simple construction and inexpensive to manufacture.
These features, and other features and advantages of the present invention, will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in the relevant art when the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments is read in conjunction with the appended drawings in which like reference numerals represent like components throughout the several views.